Analyzing and refuting the inaccuracies lodged against the lgbt community by religious conservative organizations. Lies in the name of God are still lies.

Friday, December 19, 2014

Good news for transgender community has anti-gay group spinning fear about children and churches

Excellent news for the transgender community. According to the Huffington Post:

The Justice Department will now interpret the Civil Rights Act of
1964 as protecting transgender government employees from discrimination,
Attorney General Eric Holder announced Thursday.

In a memo,
Holder wrote that the "best reading of Title VII's prohibition of sex
discrimination is that it encompasses discrimination based on gender
identity, including transgender status." Holder said that while Congress
"may not have had such claims in mind when it enacted Title VII, the
Supreme Court has made clear that Title VII must be interpreted
according to its plain text."

In a statement, Holder called the
move an “important shift" that "will ensure that the protections of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 are extended to those who suffer discrimination
based on gender identity, including transgender status."

And leave it to the Family Research Council to distort Holder's statement and spin a little fear into the situation:

FRC Senior Fellow for Policy Studies Peter Sprigg released the following statement:
"Parents are deeply concerned that giving a special status to
transgender persons will lead to troubling situations for their
children, and religious leaders are left unsure how this arbitrary new
rule will affect hiring within their ministries. This is another
example of the Obama administration circumventing the role of Congress
in imposing its own radical re-interpretation of the law. It seems safe
to assert that not a single member of Congress in 1964 would have
believed that they were granting special rights to people who want to
reject or change their biological sex.

In other words:

Granted, the graphic above is by the Traditional Values Coalition but FRC is saying pretty much the same thing, albeit in muted terms.

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About Me

Alvin McEwen is 46-year-old African-American gay man who resides in Columbia, SC.
McEwen's blog, Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, and writings have been mentioned by Americablog.com, Goodasyou.org, People for the American Way, PageOneQ.com, The Washington Post, Raw Story, The Advocate, Media Matters for America, Crooksandliars.com, Thinkprogress.org, Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish, Melissa Harris-Perry, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, Newsweek, The Daily Beast, The Washington Blade, and Foxnews.com.
In addition, he is also a past contributor to Pam's House Blend,Justice For All, LGBTQ Nation, and Alternet.org. He is a present contributor to the Daily Kos and the Huffington Post,
He is the 2007 recipient of the Harriet Daniels Hancock Volunteer of the Year Award and the 2010 recipient of the Order of the Pink Palmetto from the SC Pride Movement as well as the 2009 recipient of the Audre Lorde/James Baldwin Civil Rights Activist Award from SC Black Pride. In addition, he is a three-time nominee of the Ed Madden Media Advocacy Award from SC Pride.